The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that on average a household can waste over 10,000 gallons of water a year to leaks. The two most common household wastes of water are due to leaky faucets and toilets. Unattended faucets that leak at one drop per second can waste up to 2,700 gallons of water a year, while a toilet leaking at one gallon per minute will waste 1,440 gallons per day, and 525,600 gallons a year. According to the American Water Works Association, toilets account for 26.7% of all indoor water use in a typical residence, and 20% of all toilets leak. If a home is left unattended, perhaps when the residents go on a trip or vacation, these leaks can go on for days unnoticed and unstopped. If the flow of a typical shower, 2.2 gallons per minute (GPM), is left to accumulate for a week on the floor of a 1000 ft2 basement, residents would come back to nearly 3 feet of flooding and 22,176 extra gallons on their water bill.
Typical water use through a household water main through a 24 hour period results in large periods of the day water goes unused, with the longest stretches of continuous use being typically less than thirty minutes. Water also generally flows at over one (1) GPM when in use. Unlike normal use, leaks are continuous and usually at a lower rate. A house with leaking water or running faucet would not return to zero in between uses of water. Instead a continuous flow would be detected at all times.
It would be beneficial to develop a control device that can detect leaks based off long uninterrupted flow and stop such leaks.